France's secular laws can accommodate Islam: Hollande

President Francois Hollande insisted Thursday that France's strict laws separating church and state do not prevent the country's large Muslim minority from practising their religion.

In a speech on terrorism and democracy coming in the midst of a debate on the banning of the Islamic burkini swimsuit, Hollande said: "Nothing in the idea of secularism opposes the practice of Islam in France, provided it respects the law."